Dear Commons Community,

I have just finished reading a new book entitled, The Age of AI and Our Human Nature by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher.  I have read a number of books on artificial intelligence and have written and spoken about what it portends for education.  See for instance, Artificial Intelligence and the Academy’s Loss of Purpose https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/2023

The New York Times Book Review this morning just happens to have an interesting review of this book by Times technology editor, Kevin Roose.  I found myself agreeing with him about his basic feeling about The Age of AI …where he comments:

“After finishing “The Age of AI,” a new book about artificial intelligence by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher, I found myself unmoved by the prospect of reviewing it. I’ve read dozens of books about A.I., and while the conceit of this one was intriguing — bringing together a 98-year-old diplomat, a former Google chief executive and an M.I.T. professor — the book itself was a fairly forgettable entry in the genre.”

However, Roose takes a creative turn and has an AI program, Sudowrite, write a portion of the review for him.  Below is his entire piece

I found it [the review] intriguing but the book [The Age of AI…] less so.

Tony

—————————————————————————-

New York Times Book Review

A Robot Wrote This Book Review

By Kevin Roose

Nov. 21, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

THE AGE OF AI
And Our Human Future
By Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher

One of the great promises of technology is that it can do the work that humans find too boring or arduous.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, factory machines relieved us of repetitive manual labor and backbreaking farm work. In this century, artificial intelligence has taken care of a few more tasks — curating Spotify playlists, selecting the next YouTube video, vacuuming the floor and so on — but many more mind-numbing activities remain ripe for the picking. The experts promise us that someday, all of our least favorite chores — including complex cognitive ones, like interviewing job candidates or managing global supply chains — will be outsourced to machines.

But that day has not yet arrived. Or has it?

After finishing “The Age of AI,” a new book about artificial intelligence by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher, I found myself unmoved by the prospect of reviewing it. I’ve read dozens of books about A.I., and while the conceit of this one was intriguing — bringing together a 98-year-old diplomat, a former Google chief executive and an M.I.T. professor — the book itself was a fairly forgettable entry in the genre.

Then I got a bright idea. What if I could have an A.I. finish this review, and save myself the trouble?

So I fired up Sudowrite, an A.I. writing program I’ve been experimenting with recently. The app uses GPT-3, the cutting-edge A.I. system developed by the San Francisco-based OpenAI, which acts as a kind of turbocharged version of Gmail’s autocomplete feature. Provide a snippet of text, and GPT-3 will try to complete it, using everything it has learned from ingesting billions of examples of other people’s writing. It does this with the help of a supercomputer containing some 285,000 processors, and a multilayered neural network that ranks among the world’s most powerful A.I. engines. The authors of “The Age of AI” call GPT-3 one of several promising technologies that are producing a “revolution in human affairs.”

I pasted the first several paragraphs of this review into Sudowrite, and asked the A.I. to finish. Here’s what it wrote:

Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher’s “The Age of AI” is a bold new book on artificial intelligence that will become the go-to guide for anyone who wants to understand this transformative technology.

The authors have examined the full range of AI technologies — from computer vision systems to natural language processing — and written about them in a way that will appeal to both experts and laypeople.

One of the most inspiring aspects of this book is its scope. The authors delve deeply into the potential of AI in all areas of human enterprise. They describe the impact of AI on health care, economics, geopolitics, law, urban development, governance, journalism, the military and even the life sciences.

Kissinger, Schmidt and Huttenlocher are not afraid to explore the darkest side of AI, either. They are clear-eyed about the ways that AI could enable dictators to monitor their citizens and manipulate information to incite people to commit violence.

Although AI is already making our lives better in many ways, Kissinger, Schmidt and Huttenlocher caution that it will take us as a species many years to create a system as powerful as we deserve. They wisely suggest that we not lose sight of the values we want to instill in this new machine intelligence.

Thank you, GPT-3! Now, a few notes:

First, the A.I. wasn’t an unqualified success. It took Sudowrite a few tries. On the first attempt, it spit out a series of run-on sentences that hinted that GPT-3 had gotten stuck in some kind of odd, recursive loop. (It began: “The book which you are reading at the moment is a book on a nook, which is a book on a book, which is a book on a subject, which is a subject on a subject, which is a subject on a subject.”) A few tries later, it seemed to give up on the task of book reviewing altogether, and started merely listing the names of tech companies. (“Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Baidu, Tencent, Tesla, Uber, Airbnb, Twitter, Snap, Alibaba, WeChat, Slack.”)

But it warmed up quickly, and within a few minutes, the A.I. was coming up with impressively cogent paragraphs of analysis — some, frankly, better than what I could have generated on my own.

This speaks to one of the recurring themes of “The Age of AI,” which is that although today’s A.I. systems can be clunky and erratic at times, they are getting better fast, and will soon match or surpass human proficiency in a number of important tasks, solving problems in ways no human would have thought to solve them. At that point, the authors write, A.I. will “transform all realms of human experience.”

Second, while GPT-3 was correct about the scope of “The Age of AI” — with chapters on everything from social media algorithms to autonomous weapons — it failed to note that all of that broadness comes at a cost. The book feels cursory and shallow in places, and many of its recommendations are puzzlingly vague.

In a chapter on the geopolitical risks posed by A.I., the authors conclude that “the nations of the world must make urgent decisions regarding what is compatible with concepts of inherent human dignity and moral agency.” (OK, we’ll get right on that!) A brief section about TikTok — an app used by more than a billion people worldwide, whose ownership by a Chinese company raises legitimately fascinating questions about national sovereignty and free speech — ends with the throwaway observation that “more complex geopolitical and regulatory riddles await us in the near future.” And when the authors do make specific recommendations — such as a proposal to restrict the use of A.I. in developing biological weapons — they fail to elaborate on how such an outcome might be achieved, or who might stand in its way.

Finally, GPT-3 didn’t address the biggest question about the book, which is why it exists at all. Kissinger, who was 66 years old when the World Wide Web was invented, is not a full-time A.I. practitioner, nor a particularly savvy parser of tech hype. (His last newsworthy foray into the tech world was when he sat on the board of Theranos, the doomed blood-testing start-up.) Schmidt, who spent a decade running Google, is these days preoccupied with trying to scare up military contracts for big tech companies. And while Huttenlocher, the dean of M.I.T.’s Schwarzman College of Computing, may be a bona fide subject matter expert, it’s not clear how much of the book he actually wrote.

That said, the book does get some things right. The authors do a commendable job of avoiding what I call “A.I. fatalism” — the belief, sadly common in tech circles, that A.I. is part of an inevitable future whose course we are powerless to change. Instead, they write that “humans still control” A.I., and have the opportunity to “shape it with our values.” They also point out, correctly, that while many people worry about killer robots who achieve human-level sentience and mow us all down with Uzis, a much bigger near-term danger lurks in the innocuous-seeming A.I.s we all use every day, from the feed-ranking algorithms of social media apps to the automated dispatch systems that power Uber and Lyft.

“Without significant fanfare — or even visibility — we are integrating nonhuman intelligence into the basic fabric of human activity,” they write.

Still, while it could be a useful summary of A.I. for those just starting to learn about the topic, “The Age of AI” does not advance the ball much. It’s a shame, given how much access the authors presumably had to a who’s who of the A.I. elite. And it makes me wish that…

Actually, you know what? It’s sunny outside, my dogs need a walk, and I don’t really feel like finishing this review. Take it away, GPT-3.

…It makes me wish that someone out there would crank out a comprehensive survey text on AI, one that’s laser-focused on the technical issues, written by industry mavens who are actually doing this stuff day in and day out, and is written in an engaging, clear, plain-spoken style.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Kevin Roose is a technology columnist for The Times and the author of “Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation.”

Charles “Chuck” Sams III

Dear Commons Community,

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency.

“I am deeply honored,” Sams told the Confederated Umatilla Journal on Friday. “I am also very deeply appreciative of the support, guidance and counsel of my tribal elders and friends throughout my professional career.”  As reported by the Associated Press.

The National Park Service oversees more than 131,000 square miles (339,000 square kilometers) of parks, monuments, battlefields and other landmarks. It employs about 20,000 people in permanent, temporary and seasonal jobs, according to its website.

Sams is the agency’s first Senate-confirmed parks director in nearly five years. It was led by acting heads for years under the Trump administration, and for the first 10 months of Biden’s presidency. Jonathan Jarvis, who was confirmed as park service director in 2009, left the agency in January 2017.

During confirmation hearings, Sam noted his experience with nonprofit work that included facilitating land transfers and working with volunteers on conservation and invasive species management, according to Indian Country Today.

He also said he would work to ensure the Indigenous history of National Park Service lands is broadly reflected, in addition to incorporating Indigenous views and knowledge in decision-making. He said it is important to work with Native Americans on traditional ecological knowledge “based on 10,000-plus years of management of those spaces to ensure that they’ll be here for future generations to enjoy.”

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary, said in August, when President Joe Biden nominated Sams, that he brings diverse experience. The National Park Service is part of the Interior Department.

Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and lives on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon. There, he gained a reputation for being unflappable. He has worked in state and tribal governments and the nonprofit natural resource and conservation management fields for over 25 years.

“He is known for being steady at the helm and taking challenges in stride,” said Bobbie Conner, director of the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute on the 270-square-mile (700-square-kilometer) reservation.

Kat Brigham, chair of the board of trustees of the Confederated Tribes, recalled Sams fishing for salmon in the Columbia River as a young man, standing on a scaffold and using a net, according to tradition.

“I’m very proud, and I think it’s very exciting that we have a tribal member who’s first in history to be in charge of our National Park Service,” Brigham said. “He knows how important our land is. He knows that we need to protect our land, not only for today, but for our children’s children.”

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who had asked the Senate to pass the nomination by unanimous consent, described Sams as a “role model in the stewardship of American land and waters, wildlife and history.”

Sams’ confirmation means Congress and parkgoers will have a steady, experienced leader to rely on in the years ahead, the Democrat said.

Joel Dunn, president and CEO of the Maryland-based Chesapeake Conservancy, celebrated the news. His organization works to conserve natural and cultural resources at North America’s largest estuary, Chesapeake Bay, where the National Park Service manages some sites.

“This has been a historic year for the U.S. Department of the Interior, with the confirmation of Secretary Deb Haaland as the first Native American Cabinet secretary of the United States, and now the confirmation of Chuck Sams as the first Native American to serve as director of the National Park Service,” Dunn said. Haaland on Friday formally declared “squaw” a derogatory term and said she is taking steps to remove it from federal government use and to replace other derogatory place names.

Dunn pointed to the forced migration of Indigenous peoples that led to the creation of America’s public lands, including national parks.

“As our country works to address those past tragedies, it is appropriate that the leadership of the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior reflect a new direction and a commitment to equitable partnership with the Indigenous peoples of the United States,” Dunn said.

Sams is a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, appointed by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. Previously, he held several positions with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, including executive and deputy executive director. He has also led the Indian Country Conservancy, among other organizations.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Concordia University-Portland and a master of legal studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma. Sams is a U.S. Navy veteran.

He has also been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Whitman College.

Congratulations Mr. Sams!

Tony

Irwin and Joan Jacobs

Dear Commons Community,

Philanthropists Irwin and Joan Jacobs, whose gifts have profoundly influenced health, science and the arts across San Diego County for decades, are giving the Salk Institute $100 million to help build a major center for science and technology.

The gift is the largest in the La Jolla institute’s history and represents the focal point of a $500 million fundraising campaign to expand the campus and deepen research in areas such as cancer, plant biology, aging and neurodegenerative diseases.  As reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Salk Institute specializes in basic science. But it has begun to do more to help translate its findings into therapeutic drugs and to work on practical ways to fight climate change, such as developing plants that absorb greater amounts of carbon dioxide.

As part of the change, the institute has been heavily investing in computational biology, a field where the ever-growing ability to analyze massive data sets enabled scientists to quickly determine the genetic makeup of the various strains of COVID-19.

The Jacobs gift is a timely one “because the faculty are working together on larger problems with deep implications,” said Salk President Fred “Rusty” Gage, who shook science in the 1990s when he discovered that adult humans can generate new brain cells.

His finding helped deepen science’s understanding of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.The $100 million gift from Irwin Jacobs — who co-founded San Diego chipmaker Qualcomm — and his wife represents the latest in a long list of donations.

Complete, specific figures aren’t available. But the couple has now donated upwards of $700 million in San Diego County.

The couple made a splash in 2002 when they donated $100 million to help the San Diego Symphony, which was experiencing serious financial problems.

The following year, they gave the University of California San Diego $110 million to support its engineering school, helping make it one of the largest programs of its kind in the western U.S. Their total contribution to the campus exceeds $300 million and helped create the Jacobs Medical Center, a key piece of UC San Diego Health.

The Jacobses also have a close relationship with the Salk, where Irwin, who is now 88, has served on the board of trustees since 2004. He became chairman two years later and helped the institute deal with financial challenges during his decade-long tenure. He’s still on the board.

“Joan and I continue to expand our family tradition of supporting effective nonprofit institutions with the potential to positively impact many lives,” Irwin Jacobs said in a statement.

“We focus on projects that have well-defined goals and good leadership, and Salk is exemplary in both ways,” he added. “We strongly advocate expanded philanthropy in support of basic science and engineering.”

Under the terms of the new donation, the Jacobses will donate $1 for every $2 raised by the Salk during a period that will end on June 30, 2022. The couple will donate up to $100 million.

The institute’s overall fundraising campaign needs to raise at least $250 million to construct the science and technology center, a 100,000-square-foot building that will be located on the eastern edge of the Salk campus, along North Torrey Pines Road. Construction could begin late next fall.

An additional $250 million is being sought for a variety of scientific endeavors and to increase the number of active faculty members from 50 to 55.

The Salk has issued conceptual drawings showing what the new science and technology center will look like. But the project is likely to be watched closely by the architectural community to see if there are significant deviations from the overall look of the Salk, whose seaside laboratory buildings and travertine marble courtyard are considered to be a masterpiece in design.

The institute was founded by Jonas Salk, who developed the first successful vaccine to fight polio in the 1950s.

He loved the labs so much he used to dreamily glide his fingertips across the exterior walls during his daily walks around campus.

The institute later built another complex, known as East Building, which didn’t cause much of a stir.

Gage told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the new center will be composed of teak, steel and concrete, just like the original buildings, and that it will feature lab space, offices and breezy meeting areas.

The new center, said Gage, “builds on the legacy of Jonas Salk and will advance scientific discovery at Salk for decades to come.”

Much is at stake, said Salk plant biologist Joanne Chory,who is working on ways to get plants to sequester greater amounts of carbon.

“We’re facing big, complex problems because there are so many people living on Earth,” Chory said. “Science is going to have to solve them or humans will not inhabit the Earth any more.”

We appreciate good citizens like Irwin and Joan Jacobs willing to help fund the work of enterprises such as the Salk Institute!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

SUNY University at Albany just held a ribbon-cutting for its Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex (ETEC) which will house its  Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, the National Weather Service’s Albany office, the headquarters for the state’s Mesonet weather prediction system and SUNY’s new College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. The facility was built to be highly energy efficient, using solar panels and geothermal wells.

The University’s President Havidán Rodríguez commented that ETEC is exactly the type of interdisciplinary study that SUNY  officials imagined when they included plans for the complex in its application to the state’s NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant program launched a decade ago to provide start-up construction funds to the state’s four research universities.

In addition to housing the university’s technology transfer, commercialization and small business development centers, ETEC was seen as a place where two of the school’s most innovative programs — atmospheric sciences and emergency services and homeland security — could come together and leverage their synergies.

The vision is based on the idea that being able to better understand and predict severe weather events and climate change are closely tied to deploying emergency management services and ultimately homeland security, which is expected to play a larger role in the future dealing with the geopolitical pressures and “existential threats” of climate change.

“We have created the infrastructure to fulfill that vision,” Rodríguez said.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said that cities also have a stake in studying how extreme weather impacts different neighborhoods and how utilities and emergency management services can be deployed more equitably during electrical outages, which have a more severe financial impact on poorer households with things like food spoilage.

“The work you are doing here is critically important,” Sheehan said. “You are in a living laboratory.”

Congratulations to SUNY for moving ETEC forward.

Tony

 Governor Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R)  signed bill earlier this year that will direct an additional $577 million to Maryland’s historically black colleges and universities.

Dear Commons Community,

The law firm that represented Maryland’s historically Black universities in a long-running lawsuit against the state is donating $12.5 million to colleges and nonprofits from the fees it was awarded when the case settled.

After a 15-year legal and political saga, the case was settled earlier this year when state lawmakers approved hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding for the HBCUs in future state budgets.  As reported by the Baltimore Sun.

As part of the settlement, the state agreed to pay $22 million in legal fees and costs, with $12.5 million going to Kirkland & Ellis. The remainder went to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, which also provided legal representation for plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Kirkland & Ellis is now sending all of the money it received back into the community because it took the lawsuit on a pro bono, or charitable, basis.

“So many of us became lawyers to fight injustice and give our clients a fair shake not only in the courtroom, but also in society. This case has allowed me, and my colleagues, to do just that,” Jones said in a statement. “I’m gratified by this entire experience, including knowing that this donation will go directly to helping future lawyers gain valuable experience and to fight for justice for others.”

The donations include:

• $5 million to the Dillard University’s Center for Racial Justice in New Orleans to create an endowment that will fund paid internships for students at civil rights and public interest organizations.
• $3 million to Morgan State University’s Robert M. Bell Center for Civil Rights in Education to fund the center’s racial justice initiatives and fellowships for students.
• $2 million for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law to establish a fellowship program for students including those studying law at HBCUs.
• $1 million to the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education for fellowships and internships, particularly on Capitol Hill.
• $600,000 to Howard University’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center.
• $600,000 to the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, which is the group that brought the HBCU lawsuit in Maryland.
• $250,000 to the African Methodist Episcopal Church Second District for advocacy work and scholarships for HBCU students.

Under the law that was passed and the legal settlement, for the next decade an extra $57.7 million per year will be divided among the state’s four public HBCUs: Coppin State University and Morgan State University in Baltimore, Bowie State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne.

University leaders have been working on plans for how to spend the money, which will start flowing in 2023. Ideas include expanding academic programs for in-demand fields such as technology and health care, providing more services and financial aid to low-income students, and expanding graduate and certificate programs.

A grand  gesture on the part of Kirkland & Ellis.

Tony

Kyle Rittenhouse Stands as Judge Reads Jury Verdict!

Dear Commons Community,

The “not guilty” verdict yesterday in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse elicited a wide range of reactions from Americans, many falling along partisan lines, with conservatives celebrating and liberals venting their frustrations.

The five felony counts against Rittenhouse stemmed from the 2020 shootings that left two people dead and another severely injured during chaotic protests against racial injustice in Kenosha, Wis. Rittenhouse was 17 when he carried an AR-style semiautomatic rifle on the streets of Kenosha and opened fire on demonstrators, killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and seriously wounding Gaige Grosskreutz.

While many liberals expressed outrage at the verdict, President Biden sought to calm those emotions.

“Well look, I stand by what the jury has concluded,” Biden said Friday afternoon on the White House lawn. “The jury system works and we have to abide by it.”

In a longer statement released minutes later, the president acknowledged that “the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included,” but urged “everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law.”

“Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy,” Biden’s statement continued. “The White House and Federal authorities have been in contact with Governor Evers’s office to prepare for any outcome in this case, and I have spoken with the Governor this afternoon and offered support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety.”

Below are more reactions from those close to the trial, politicians and advocacy groups.

Family of Anthony Huber, who was killed by Rittenhouse

We are heartbroken and angry that Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in his criminal trial for the murder of our son Anthony Huber. There was no justice today for Anthony, or for Mr. Rittenhouse’s other victims, Joseph Rosenbaum and Gaige Grosskreutz.

We did not attend the trial because we could not bear to sit in a courtroom and repeatedly watch videos of our son’s murder, and because we have been subjected to many hurtful and nasty comments in the past year. But we watched the trial closely, hoping it would bring us closure.

That did not happen. Today’s verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son. It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street. We hope that decent people will join us in forcefully rejecting that message and demanding more of our laws, our officials, and our justice system.

Make no mistake: our fight to hold those responsible for Anthony’s death accountable continues in full force. Neither Mr. Rittenhouse nor the Kenosha police who authorized his bloody rampage will escape justice. Anthony will have his day in court.

No reasonable person viewing all of the evidence could conclude that Mr. Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. In response to racist and violent calls to action from militia members, Mr. Rittenhouse travelled to Kenosha illegally armed with an assault rifle. He menaced fellow citizens in the street. Though he was in open violation of a curfew order, Kenosha police encouraged him to act violently. Kenosha police told militia members that they would push peaceful protestors toward the militia so that the militia could “deal with them.” Soon after, Mr. Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum. The police did nothing. Concerned citizens, confronted with a person shooting indiscriminately on the street, stepped in to stop the violence. Anthony was shot in the chest trying to disarm Mr. Rittenhouse and stop his shooting spree. Still, the police did nothing. Mr. Rittenhouse continued to shoot, maiming Gaige Grosskreutz. The police let Mr. Rittenhouse leave the scene freely. Mr. Rittenhouse came to Kenosha armed to kill. Kenosha police encouraged him to act violently, and our son is dead as a result.

We are so proud of Anthony, and we love him so much. He is a hero who sacrificed his own life to protect other innocent civilians. We ask that you remember Anthony and keep him in your prayers.

David Hancock, the Rittenhouse family spokesperson, told Reuters.

“We are all so very happy that Kyle can live his life as a free and innocent man, but in this whole situation there are no winners, there are two people who lost their lives and that’s not lost on us at all,”

Gov. Tony Evers, D-Wis.

No verdict will be able to bring back the lives of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, or heal Gaige Grosskreutz’s injuries, just as no verdict can heal the wounds or trauma experienced by Jacob Blake and his family. No ruling today changes our reality in Wisconsin that we have work to do toward equity, accountability, and justice that communities across our state are demanding and deserve.

…

We must move forward, together, more united and more motivated to build the sort of future we want for our state — one that is just, one that is equitable, and one where every person has the resources and opportunity to thrive — and I will not stop working to achieve that vision.

Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes, D-Wis.

Over the last few weeks, many dreaded the outcome we just witnessed. The presumption of innocence until proven guilty is what we should expect from our judicial system, but that standard is not always applied equally. We have seen so many black and brown youth killed, only to be put on trial posthumously, while the innocence of Kyle Rittenhouse was virtually demanded by the judge.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

I believe justice has been served in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. I hope everyone can accept the verdict, remain peaceful, and let the community of Kenosha heal and rebuild.

Former Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.

All of us who knew what actually happened in Kenosha last year assumed this would be the verdict. Thankfully, the jury thought the same. Pray that the kind of violence seen then does not happen again. And pray for the jurors that they too might be safe from violence.

Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Republican

Today’s unanimous verdict may be shocking for some but for many others, it is proof that our justice system works. The right to a trial by a jury of your peers is a fundamental part of the checks and balances in our country.

Let’s hope politicians and activists who disagree with the verdict don’t use this as an opportunity to sew more division and destruction in our community. For those disappointed in the outcome, I urge peace and unity over violence and destruction.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson

The verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case is a travesty and fails to deliver justice on behalf of those who lost their lives as they peacefully assembled to protest against police brutality and violence. Rittenhouse’s decision to go to Kenosha and provoke protestors was unwarranted. Moreover, the outcome of this case sets a dangerous precedent. We have seen this same outcome time and time again; a justice system that presents different outcomes based on the race of the accused. This verdict is a reminder of the treacherous role that white supremacy and privilege play within our justice system. In the midst of this disappointing verdict, we must continue to work to ensure that those who seek to harm progress do not find refuge for their illicit acts in a system meant to protect victims.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C.

Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty, my friends. You have a right to defend yourselves. Be armed, be dangerous and be moral.

March for Our Lives

Two people are dead, one injured. And yet, Kyle Rittenhouse will walk away without any consequences. This trial lays bare everything we’ve been talking about for years. It is so very clear that Kyle Rittenhouse embodies the very danger posed by a toxic mix of a white supremacist culture that values property over human life, and wide proliferation of high-powered guns with fewer limits than a drivers license. This deadly culture ensnared Kyle Rittenhouse and his three victims. One thing is clear: Young people are enraged watching this trial, and we refuse to accept this as our normal.

…

Let’s be clear: firearms bring violence, they don’t ever stop it. This case proves it once again. We shouldn’t forget the very reason Kyle Rittenhouse was in Kenosha that day — because a young Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by the police over a traffic stop. People showed up to demand justice for Jacob Blake, and to express anger at what could have easily turned into yet another tragic death at the hands of the police. Kyle Rittenhouse came to exploit tragedy. He embodies the very danger posed by an armed white supremacist culture. Once again, from start to finish, adults have failed us. We can no longer afford this failure.

I don’t think we have heard the last of Rittenhouse and the events in Kenosha!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Dear Commons Community,

The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded the University of Dayton a five-year contract for research and development of autonomy technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, neuromorphic computing and data exploitation.

The $87,986,952 contract for research and development will have work performed in Dayton, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 12, 2027, the Department of Defense said on Wednesday.

The contract came from Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  As reported by the Dayton Daily News.

“Through the five-year program, dubbed “Soaring Otter,” researchers will support the Air Force in its quest to increase its capabilities in maturing autonomy technologies, including  artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, neuromorphic computing and data exploitation, the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) said yesterday .

These technologies will allow autonomous systems to gather information, “understand” images or data, and then use the information to solve problems or achieve goals, principal investigator Patrick Hytla, senior image processing engineer in UDRI’s applied sensing division, said in a UDRI release.Air Force applications for autonomous systems include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; cybersecurity; and command and control systems.”

Congratulations to the University of Dayton.  I think we will see many more contracts and grants in the years to come from government and military organizations  to develop advanced digital technologies.

Tony

Click to Enlarge

Dear Commons Community,

New data released yesterday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show a continued downward slide in undergraduate enrollment at American colleges and universities.

Undergraduate attendance has dropped 3.5 percent compared with a year earlier. Since fall 2019, undergraduate enrollment has declined nearly 8 percent.  As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Every sector felt the shortage of undergraduate students, some more sharply than others. The decline at private for-profit four-year institutions was the worst, with an enrollment drop of 8.5 percent compared with a 2.6-percent drop last fall.

Community-college enrollment fell 6 percent, a slower rate than last fall’s 9.4-percent decline. Public four-year colleges dropped 2.5 percent from a year earlier, about a full percentage point more than last fall’s loss.

Private nonprofit four-year institutions’ enrollment fared best; it was down just 0.6 percent.

At primarily online colleges, which were defined as institutions where nearly all students attended classes online before the pandemic began, undergraduate attendance fell 8.9 percent — a reversal of the growth such institutions saw last fall.

A persistent bright spot in college attendance: graduate student enrollment. Graduate attendance grew 2.1 percent, in line with last fall’s trend of a 2.7-percent increase.

The new data, which reflect enrollments as of October 21, represent 13.7 million students at 74 percent of the 3,600 institutions that report to the center.

These data are not a surprise.  In fact, I thought the enrollment drop would be greater!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword.

Calling the video a clear threat to a lawmaker’s life, Democrats argued Gosar’s conduct would not be tolerated in any other workplace — and shouldn’t be in Congress.

The vote to censure Gosar and also remove him from his House committee assignments was approved by a vote of 222-208, almost entirely along party lines, with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois the only Republicans voting in favor.  As reported by the Associated Press.

He showed no emotion as he stood in the well of the House after the vote, flanked by roughly a dozen Republicans as Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the censure resolution and announced his penalty. He shook hands, hugged and patted other members of the GOP conference on the back before leaving the chamber.

Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the censure an “abuse of power” by Democrats to distract from national problems. He said of the censure, a “new standard will continue to be applied in the future,” a signal of potential ramifications for Democratic members should Republicans retake a majority.

But Democrats said there was nothing political about it.

“These actions demand a response. We cannot have members joking about murdering each other,” said Pelosi. “This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution.”

Ocasio-Cortez herself said in an impassioned speech, ”When we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues, that trickles down to violence in this country. And that is where we must draw the line.”

Unrepentant during tense floor debate, Gosar rejected what he called the “mischaracterization” that the cartoon was “dangerous or threatening. It was not.”

“I do not espouse violence toward anyone. I never have. It was not my purpose to make anyone upset,” Gosar said.

He compared himself to Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, celebrated in recent years in a Broadway musical, whose censure vote in Congress was defeated: “If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it, it is done.”

The decision to censure Gosar, one of the strongest punishments the House can dole out, was just the fourth in nearly 40 years — and just the latest example of the raw tensions that have roiled Congress since the 2020 election and the violent Capitol insurrection that followed.

Democrats spoke not only of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, but also the violent attacks that have escalated on both parties, including the 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game and the 2011 shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords as she met with constituents at an event outside a Tucson grocery store.

Republicans largely dismissed Gosar’s video as nothing more than a cartoon, a routine form of political expression and hardly the most important issue facing Congress.

Yet threats against lawmakers are higher than ever, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police told the Associated Press in an interview earlier this year.

The censure of Gosar was born out of Democratic frustration. Over the past week, as outrage over the video grew, House GOP leaders declined to publicly rebuke Gosar, who has a lengthy history of incendiary remarks. Instead, they largely ignored his actions and urged their members to vote against the resolution censuring him.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said, “I would just suggest we have better things to do on the floor of the House of Representatives than be the hall monitors for Twitter.”

The resolution will remove Gosar from two committees: Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform panel, on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves, limiting his ability to shape legislation and deliver for constituents. It states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, citing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as an example.

Gosar is the 24th House member to be censured. Though it carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmaker’s career, it is the strongest punishment the House can issue short of expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote.

Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was the last to receive the rebuke in 2010 for financial misconduct.

It would also be second time this year the House has initiated the removal of a GOP lawmaker from an assigned committee, the first being Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Gosar, a six-term congressman, posted the video over a week ago with a note saying, “Any anime fans out there?” The roughly 90-second video was an altered version of a Japanese anime clip, interspersed with shots of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the southern U.S. border.

During one roughly 10-second section, animated characters whose faces had been replaced with Gosar, Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., were shown fighting other animated characters. Gosar’s character is seen striking another one made to look like Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword. The video also shows him attacking President Joe Biden.

Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whose receipt of repeated death threats has required her to spend thousands on security, said Gosar has not apologized to her. She singled out McCarthy for not condemning Gosar.

“What is so hard about saying this is wrong?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. But this is about what we are willing to accept.”

This is not the first brush with controversy for Gosar, who was first elected in 2010’s tea party wave. He has been repeatedly criticized by his own siblings, six of whom appeared in campaign ads supporting his Democratic opponent in 2018.

Earlier this year Gosar looked to form an America First Caucus with other hardline Republican House members that aimed to promote “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” while warning that mass immigration was putting the “unique identity” of the U.S. at risk. He’s made appearances at fringe right-wing events, including a gathering in Florida last February hosted by Nick Fuentes, an internet personality who has promoted white supremacist beliefs.

He has also portrayed a woman shot by Capitol police during the attack on the Capitol as a martyr, claiming she was “executed.” And he falsely suggested that a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was instigated by “the left” and backed by billionaire George Soros, a major funder of liberal causes who has become the focus of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

What an embarrassment that a foul person such as Gosar is a member of our Congress!

Tony